I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.
As someone who doesn’t like Ready Player One, I’ve got to say this answer is a bit out of place in this thread.
Mein Kampf or Atlas Shrugged are straight up fascist red flags, Dianetics is from a cult, The Secret or Hope They Serve Beer in Hell or American Psycho are their own brand of toxcity, etc.
Ready Player One is just gaudy and tacky, it’s in the same ballpark as The Da Vinci Code, at worst it only tells you that the person doesn’t read much not that they’re straight up evil lol sure it would probably lower my desire to date them as it communicate a difference in taste and interests but I could certainly be friends with them.
Right. I think Ready Player One could be a deal breaker if you’re only interested in dating another reader, because the person probably doesn’t read that much, or maybe they have unsophisticated taste. But it’s not on the level of “this person has something wrong with them” like the other examples. So it’s not completely out of the question in this thread but it’s definitely more of a personal preference thing.